#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Roland On The Road Talking 2024 Elections,Hurricane Milton,Post-Election Fears, Felons Voting Rights

Episode Date: October 11, 2024

10.10.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Roland On The Road Talking 2024 Elections,Hurricane Milton,Post-Election Fears, Felons Voting Rights LIVE from Pennsylavaina's Lincoln University!!! Hurricane Milton left miles of debris and killed at least 12 people, creating a record of 100 tornado warnings in a single day.  We'll talk to Meteorologist Paul Goodloe about Milton and tropical storm Nadine. A recent poll by The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights finds that voters fear post-election violence.  We'll talk to Maya Wiley, the organization's President and CEO, about the other things voters fear about this election.  Four million people will not be able to vote in 48 states where laws ban people with felony convictions from voting.  We'll talk to the executive director of The Sentencing Project about the systematic exclusion of millions with felony convictions. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. the recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to it. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself.

Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad listen to absolute season one taser incorporated on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts Thank you. Today is Thursday, October 10th, 2024. Coming up on Roland Martin Underpilter, streaming live on the Black Star Network. I'm here at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania talking about the election. It's a homecoming week as well. And so lots of talk about what's on the minds of students when it comes to this election in this critical battleground state. We'll get into that.

Also, Hurricane Milton has left miles of the green. Twelve people are dead. We'll talk to meteorologist Paul Goodlaw of the Weather Channel about the aftermath of the second hurricane to hit the Sunshine State. Also, a recent poll by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights says voters fear post-election violence. We'll talk to the president and CEO of the Leadership Conference, Maya Wiley, about their poll. Plus, 4 million people will not be able to vote in 48 states because laws ban folks with felony convictions from voting. We'll talk to the executive director of the Sentencing Project about that as well. Plus, Donald Trump speaks to the economic club in Detroit.

And what does he do? He insults Detroit and Vice President Kamala Harris. We'll show you exactly what he had to say. Let's go. Whatever the piss, he's on it Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine And when it breaks, he's right on time And it's rolling Best belief he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics

With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's on go-go-go, y'all It's rolling, Martin, yeah It's Uncle Roro, y'all Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah

He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Rollin' Martin Now Martin Now. Our town. Folks, we're live at Lincoln University in the Mary Dove Memorial Chapel here on the campus of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Glad to be back here. My third time here on the campus. First did commencement several years ago.

I spoke on campus a few years ago when they had their new president. So glad to be here. Of course, this is the third stop of our three-city tour here in Pennsylvania. We were in Philadelphia the last few days talking about this election in this crucial battleground state that will determine the next president of the United States. And so we're going to get into a lot of that. But first, we're going to talk about Hurricane Milton, which has led to massive devastation all across Florida. It hit landfall as a category three, then fizzled out to a category one. But 12 people are dead as

a result of that tornado that were spawned by this as well, in addition to lots of wreckage. And so they still are assessing all of the damage. Earlier today, President Joe Biden talked about the impact of Milton on Florida. Last night, Hurricane Milton made landfalls, we all know, on the west coast of Florida. Brought hurricane winds, heavy rains, including 10 to 20 inches of rain in the Tampa area overnight. Storm surge measurements are still being taken, but 38 tornadoes ripped through 13 counties. Four deaths are reported thus far.

It's too early to know the full account of the damage, though. But we know life-saving measures did make a difference. More than 80,000 people followed orders to safely shelter last night, and we've had search and rescue teams at the ready for any calls for help this morning. There are still very dangerous conditions in the state, and people should wait to be given all clear by their leaders before they go out. We know from previous hurricanes that it's often the case that more lives are lost today following the storm than actually during the

storm itself. Vice President Harris and I have been in constant contact with the state and local officials. We're offering everything they need. I must have spoken to somewhere between 10 and 15 mayors and county executives and all the governors. And, in fact, starting this morning, we are getting direct assessments from the Storm and FEMA, from Director Crisil as well, also Florida Governor DeSantis, whom I had a chance to speak. And the Vice President and I have just convened

a meeting this morning with the leaders of the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, including North Com commander, who has responsibility for providing defense support to civilian authorities. And that apparently is going very well. As well as from the Coast Guard and from FEMA, we've received reports. We focused on what the American military can do like no one else can, provide emergency support

for communities in need. And we're required by the governor in the federal, and required by the governor in the affected states. I've spoken to all the governors, not today all of them, but I've spoken to all of them thus far, and how we can be ready to go in an instant when the call comes. At my direction, the Defense Secretary Austin has provided a range of capabilities both to Florida for Hurricane Milton as well as the states impacted by Hurricane Helene. And the more capabilities that are available, we assess the pressing needs. We can get whatever they need.

We can get whatever they need. Of course, this is the second hurricane to hit in the last couple of weeks. You had Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. Paul Goodloe, meteorologist with the Weather Channel, joins us right now. Paul, glad to see you. I think back to Hurricane Katrina that was followed up by Hurricane Rita. Katrina hit the New Orleans area. Then, of course, Rita came toward those of us in Texas and other parts there.

And so this has to be just a lot of devastation back to back in these states. I'm Clayton English. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice

to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this

quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser

the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated,

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-up way, you got to pray for yourself

as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. I think you're muted. Paul, you might be muted. Paul, you might be muted.

Nope, Paul's not muted. Paul's not muted. it. We lost your audio. Not sure what happened, but we lost your audio. Not sure what happened, but we lost your audio. But we can't hear you. All right, so we, yeah, I think we lost your audio, Paul. We can, so folks, we can faintly hear Paul. So let me know when y'all have audio.

So let's do this here. I'm going to go to a quick break. We're going to come back, and then we're going to have the audio fixed for Paul Goodlove, the Weather Channel, so we can hear from him and talk about the devastation there. So we'll be right back on Roller Martin Unfortunate on the Black Star Network. He told us who he was. Should abortion be punished? There has to be some form of punishment. Then he showed us.

For 54 years, they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I did it, and I'm proud to have done it. Now Donald Trump wants to go further with plans to restrict birth control, ban abortion nationwide, even monitor women's pregnancies. We know who Donald Trump is. He'll take control. We'll pay the price. I'm Kamala Harris, and I approve this message. In 2016, Donald Trump said he would choose only the best people to work in his White House. Now those people have a warning for America. Trump is not fit to be president again.

Here's his vice president. Anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be president of the United States. It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year. His defense secretary. Do you think Trump can be trusted with the nation's secrets ever again?

No. I mean, it's just irresponsible action that places our service members at risk, places our nation's security at risk. His national security advisor. Donald Trump will cause a lot of damage. The only thing he cares about is Donald Trump. And the nation's highest-ranking military officer. We don't take an oath to a king or a queen

or to a tyrant or a dictator. And we don't take an oath to a wannabe dictator. Take it from the people who knew him best. Donald Trump is a danger to our troops and our democracy. We can't let him lead our country again. I'm Kamala Harris, and I approve this message. Hey, what's up? It's Tammy Roman.

Hey, it's John Murray, the executive producer of the new Sherri Shepherd talk show. It's me, Sherri Shepherd, and you know what you're watching, Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, fellas, we're back at Lincoln University. I think we got everything straight with Paul Goodloe with the Weather Channel, so let's bring him up, Paul. Hey there, Roland. Again, I'm him up, Paul. Hey there, Roland. Again, I'm in Sarasota.

Hey there, Roland. Again, I'm in Sarasota. We have internet. We have spotty cell service. So, you know, technology is a struggle at this point. But let's get right back into it. You mentioned with Hurricane Milton. Again, two weeks ago, we had Hurricane Helene.

Didn't make landfall here, but Brush 5 had record storm surge. And then last month, you know, we had, we had Hurricane Helene. Didn't make a landfall here, but Brush 5 had record storm surge. And then last month, you know, we had, you know, Helene. Then before that, we had Hurricane Debbie back in August. And before that, we had Francine and we had Beryl in Texas. So we've been dealing with a lot of impacts from tropical weather here in the U.S., five landfalls of hurricanes. And even Milton came in as a major Category 3 hurricane and insulted injury for this area that was just trying to recover from all the flooding they had with Helene. And, you know, people always think about, oh, it's just going to be where it hits, where the wind is. But these hurricanes bring in what's called a storm surge or just a lifting of the water and pushing it onshore. And you mentioned Katrina.

And remember those pictures, the devastation, the death around New Orleans. But they were on the so-called weaker side of the storm, the coast of Mississippi, Biloxi, Pascagoula, Gulfport. I mean, literally, you've been there. You've seen human existence wiped clean down to the foundation of a lot of these buildings. That's the full force of 20, 30 feet of ocean waters coming up and then coming in with that force. And the Katrina disaster in New Orleans is more like man-made failures of the levees, still because of Katrina. But, you know, the full brunt of that storm surge was evident on the coast of Mississippi, even parts of Alabama. Here in Florida, they had flooding from a passing by hurricane by 100 miles two weeks ago. And then we have the

on-close of direct landfall. We were actually in the eye here in Sarasota last night. And, you know, the wind went from gusting 90 plus to nothing. And then on the backside, it was 102 mile per hour wind gusts. On the back end, the so-called weaker side of the hurricane, it certainly was not weak last night. And earlier today, I talked with FEMA Director Criswell earlier this afternoon, and she's saying FEMA's here, FEMA's on the ground, FEMA's trying to help whoever needs help with this. But, you know, it's tough because it's already in a state where it's expensive to live in terms of insuring your property.

So there are a lot of people still trying to survey not only the damage we had two weeks ago with Helene, but now the damage with Milton. And you've got to pray for some folks here trying to get back on their feet here in Florida. So you've had two hurricanes in two weeks. Is there anything developing as we speak? Or should folks be preparing for more storms? And also, when does hurricane season end?

Hurricane season officially ends November 30th. So technically we have another, you know, almost two months or about seven weeks left. And looking long range, you can't bet the farm on long range models, but on the long range models will try to hint at something else in the Gulf of Mexico. And as a concern, because once it's in the Gulf, it's going to hit land. It's not going to quietly exit the Gulf. And the ocean water temperatures in the Atlantic Basin, including the Gulf of Mexico, have been above average for a long, long time. Even the beginning of the season, they were still running typical August, September temperatures in June, in July. So they're still abnormally warm. And that's part of the fuel for tropical storms or hurricanes to originate and grow and strengthen and bring that

devastation onshore. So again, that energy is wound out in these stronger and stronger storms. Yet again, Milton, another Cat 5 hurricane we've been dealing with this year, a rapid intensifier. And I remember there's some people like, why is this happening? Well, the simple answer is, if you add more energy to any equation, you have wilder results. So basically, if you add more energy to the atmosphere, and heat is energy with our change in climate, that goes into the oceans, that goes into the atmosphere, it goes into the storms, it goes into the wilder extremes. Yes, we're going to have climate change, we're going to have global warming, but we also have winter and snowstorms at the same time. They're not mutually exclusive. But what's for sure is

we're going to have wilder extremes of weather. And we've been dealing with that more and more and more. And, you know, I'm not trying to have job security, but, you know, we do have a lot of storms to cover. And Milton now is yet the latest billion-dollar disaster to hit the U.S. And we also know that hurricanes and tropical storms like this, they're not just a coastal entity. We think about Helene, and yes, it made landfall in the Florida kind of Big Bend area, but you saw the pictures of flooding in Atlanta. You saw the pictures of the flooding in Tennessee and in North Carolina. These are no longer just coastal storms. There

was a storm, a hurricane that made landfall in Louisiana, I think it was two years ago. It caused more deaths with the flooding it caused in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York than it did where it hit in Louisiana. So, you know, this is the thing about this weather. You can't escape it. And it's far beyond where that weather might start in terms of the impacts to people who may be living in a basement apartment, and you have record-setting rain, and you have the water rise so fast you don't have a way out. And that's what happened a couple of years ago in New York and parts of New Jersey. So, yeah, more and more people are getting in harm's way

of whether they never thought they would be in harm's way for it. Well, there was a report I saw the other day of all of these people who literally moved from eastern North Carolina along the shores to western North Carolina as more mountainous, thinking they were actually escaping climate change. And then we saw what happened with Hurricane Eileen, the massive flooding, and how Asheville was just almost wiped out because of the floods. And they specifically were reciting, hey, we think it's safer living here to combat climate change. That simply is not the case. No, no, not at all.

And, you know, you might escape the landfall of a hurricane by moving to western North Carolina versus, say, the Outer Banks, because the Outer Banks are bare islands. We see every couple of weeks another home, like around Rodanthe, just collapse because they're up on the silts. But, you know, Mother Nature is the great equalizer. You cannot escape the weather, no matter where you live, how much money you make, whoever you pray to, you cannot escape the weather. And that's why I kind of love what I do, because it's so fascinating. And it's also very, very humbling. In fact, last night, we were talking about it. We're on the water here in Sarasota, and we have the winds, we have the eye and the calm. And then I knew, and I was saying, okay,

once the eye passes us by the winds kick back up but our wind direction will change and all of a sudden we'll start seeing the surge and that's what we did and it got to a point you know and uh i i try not to go directly in harm's way or for my for my crew here as well but it got it got hairy for a point last night when you know you see the surge come up and come up rapidly. We expected that. And we had to hightail it out of there. We did.

But, you know, it's something where I can see people who didn't know or didn't really stay in the loop of what's happening, that despite our technology and our advancement, we go to different planets, we leave our planet, we're still so minuscule compared to what Mother Nature can dish out. And, you know, I also talked about this storm, how it was a Cat 5 at one point, made landfalls Cat 3. But these storms don't have brakes. All we're doing is taking our foot off the gas and it's coasting in with very wild impacts weather-wise. And again, it's not just a single point. Yes, it hit on the West Coast, just south of the opening of Tampa

Bay. But we had, as you're talking about, dozens and dozens of tornadoes, killer, deadly tornadoes just north of Miami and that part of Florida. So, you know, it's a wide range of impacts that it's almost impossible to find a place on this country or on this planet that you can truly escape the impacts of weather. And with wilder swings in our weather, the extremes are becoming more commonplace. Our averages are trending upward for more extreme weather events. So it's something that even if we change all the inputs we're putting in the atmosphere that has kind of spurred these changes, you know, we're still going to have the changes and the extremes go up before they start to plateau and go down. So now it's a matter of kind of adapting to it and changing our responses.

And I think about Katrina, and then you had, you know, Ike and the other storms that threatened after Katrina, and people got up and they evacuated. Unfortunately, because of the storm surge here with Helene and people telling horror stories about having, you know, the water come up so fast and had to rescue their families and they were scared. That got a lot of people up and out of Florida. We could have had a lot more people injured and killed if they did not heed the evacuation orders and actually evacuate. Because I do this all the time.

And a lot of people just say, well, I'm not leaving. I've been through this storm. Every storm is different. And even last night's storm shocked me and how different it was than from riding out Helene weeks earlier. And then before that, I was at Francine and then Beryl and Debbie. They're all completely different. So, you know, it's better to evacuate six times and never have anything happen to your house versus not evacuate one time and you're screaming out and praying late at night and no one's coming to help you. And no one's coming to help you. Indeed. Paul Goodloe with the Weather Channel. We appreciate it, Fred. Thanks a lot.

No problem. No problem. No problem. No problem. Folks, let's now turn to politics. After the 2020 election, we saw an unprecedented amount of political violence. We saw what took place on January 6th, 2021. The FBI has actually prosecuted more than 900 people who were involved on the attack on the U.S. Capitol on that particular day. And you still have Donald Trump and his MAGA followers still stating that it was just a walk in the park. They were just doing a tour of the U.S. Capitol. Well, a new poll commissioned by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights found that 73 percent of voters across the country are worried about political violence happening again based upon the outcome of the vote on November 5th.

Maya Wiley is president and CEO of the Leadership Conference. She's also the author of Remember Uri Wiley. She joins us right now. Maya, let's talk about these poll results in terms of what it shows because we saw what happened. I was in Atlanta the day that actually happened. It was after Senator Warnock was elected in the runoff election in 2020. And I remember a bunch of interviews, and people were asking me, hey, what are your thoughts on this?

And I said, well, chickens came home to roost. It was interesting. My publicist was upset. She's like, hey, you know, you shouldn't say that. I'm like, no, I'm actually going to say it because it needs to be said. Many of us have been saying this was happening. Not only that, the FBI still has not found the individual who placed those pipe bombs outside of the Democratic National Committee office and Vice President Kamala Harris was

inside the building when that happened. And so this thing is real and it is not dissipated. That is correct. And that is correct. Not confused about this. I think what the poll shows and it's the third year we've done this poll, but it was the first year that we realized we needed to ask this question about whether or not people were concerned about political violence. And our poll is one that covers all people. We sample for white and for black and Latino, and we know that we are capturing a very big cross-section of this country.

It's a national poll. And 73 percent is a very high number. And it's not surprising, both because of your very important points, Roland, what people have seen in the news, but it's also, you know, that we've seen the rise of hate. We've seen how people respond to rhetoric from politicians and other powerful people who seek to divide us, who can sometimes stoke that kind of violence. And so I think the fact that people are knowledgeable, are paying attention, should be no surprise to us. But I also want to make sure people know that there's good news in this poll, very good news. I mean, for one thing, our poll has found year over year over year for the past three years that democracy is a top issue, that people are very concerned about their freedoms.

You know, I would say we could summarize it, as people know, democracy is on the ballot. But equally importantly, if not more importantly, that we have seen record high numbers of motivation to vote. Ninety-three percent of the respondents in this poll said that they were highly motivated to vote. And it won't surprise your audience that Black women are off the charts. And that's not unusual, Black people. But motivation for Black women is at 60%. That's extremely high and it's higher than any other group. And as we know, that's going to be critical when we talk about the other issues that are showing up in this poll that people care deeply about, their disapproval of the Supreme Court, their interest in having the health

care that abortion provides. Nobody wants to see another black woman die because they can't get emergency medical treatment when they're pregnant. But it's also about, you know, all of the freedoms that we enjoy, people caring about affordable health care. And all of these issues are very much clear, front, center, and present for the people we survey. Well, we do have to deal with the reality of whiteness. First of all, 70 percent of the electorate in 2020 were white voters. Your poll shows that how worried the folks about white supremacy on the increase.

Fifty-two% say they are more worried, 47% said less worried, very worried was 29%, somewhat worried was 22%. Then we went to the question of white nationalism, total more worried, 50%, total less worried, 44%, control room, y'all should be showing the graphics while we social over the graphics. Thank you very much. Somewhat worried, 18%, Not so worried, 15%. I mean, that is real. And when you start looking at the rhetoric being used,

when you start looking at what is being stated, and I've said this to several political folks on social media when they were talking about why Vice President Kamala Harris isn't doing so well when it comes to union workers. I said, why are y'all leaving out the white part of union workers? We have to recognize in places like this state, Pennsylvania, in Ohio, in Michigan, in Wisconsin, we have folks who are actually voting against their pocketbooks and voting for white culture. A lot of this also plays into it in terms of what we are seeing into the political violence

with the rhetoric that we're actually seeing. And so I just think that a lot of folks in media and in the political world, they just refuse to deal with the reality of whiteness in these conversations. They want to sort of just leave it off to the side as if it doesn't exist. We have a significant problem with white supremacy and white ethno-nationalism in this country. You can see it in the hate crimes data. You can see it in Project 2025. You can see it, to your point, Roland, in so many different spaces. And yes, we see a very sharp political divide, ideological divide.

The one thing that is really good news in this poll, and I will also say, you know, just from personal experience and with a lot of unions who are members of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and also helped found the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, you know, I was really so gratified to be walking with white union workers from the automobile, from United Auto Workers, you know, when we were in Chicago in August, and really active and all in. Workers from Belvedere, we know that there's a strike pending there. So, I mean, the one good thing to know is, you know, no community is a monolith, and that is important. And we have some good allyship on the issues of democracy and freedom

and racial justice and a right to work and support a family. But I think you're also right that you can see in the numbers exactly what you're talking about, Roland. But it's also very gratifying to see how women, women in general across race, women who are white women who lean liberal, and even the softening in what would be the moderate category, right, the people who would not self-identify as conservative or liberal, who are less susceptible, who are more swayable, I would say, on really critical issues. So just for example, you know, we heard and saw the hateful lies about the Haitian community in Springfield. We know what that was. That was hate. That was racism. That was explicit. And that had real consequences to people's safety. And look, the narrative and the rhetoric we're hearing from politicians who want to divide us

along racial lines, who want to signal to white supremacy and to white nationalism exactly those things are often saying the quiet part out loud. But what they're also doing is trying to use immigration as a wedge. They are trying to say that we should fear immigrants, that folks who come to this country and work and pay taxes somehow do not deserve, you know, the respect and treatment that we know we all deserve as human beings. And when you look at moderates, for example, if you look at conservatives, people who self-identify as conservative, heavily white, you're going to see their top issue is immigration and the economy.

But if you ask moderates, you know, immigration comes up as 20 percent. That's a significantly lower number. And what it tells us is we really do have the opportunity to speak to the issues that people care about. And when they hear politicians are trying to divide us, they do not like it. It does not serve any of us. And that is also equally true on racial justice issues, which also polled fairly high on this poll. So I would just say, you know, when we think about the coalition of the willing, the coalition that is a pro-democracy coalition, you know, that's black

people, that's us showing up, that's us using our voice. It's recognizing that immigrants are all of us. It's also recognizing that the hate and the division of white supremacy and white ethno nationalism cannot win when we have this coalition. And that includes our white brothers and sisters who know it's wrong. Ma Wiley, we certainly appreciate appreciate it thank you so very much thank you roland as always always all right folks we come back we'll chat with our panel uh our regular thursday panel plus panel here at lincoln university lots to talk about when it comes to the election can't wait to hear all of them weigh in. Folks, you are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network,

broadcasting live from Lincoln University. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding

of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things.

Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened

when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves.

A wrap up way, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov.

Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. ...here in Pennsylvania, back in a moment. ...here in Pennsylvania, back in a moment....here in Pennsylvania, back in a moment....here in Pennsylvania, back in a moment....here in Pennsylvania, back in a moment....here in Pennsylvania, back in a moment....here in Pennsylvania, back in a moment....here in Pennsylvania, back in a moment....here in Pennsylvania, back in a moment....here in Pennsylvania, back in a moment....here in Pennsylvania, back in a moment....here in Pennsylvania, back in a moment....here in Pennsylvania, back in a moment....here in Pennsylvania, back in a moment....here in Pennsylvania, back in a moment....here in Pennsylvania, back in a moment....here in Pennsylvania, back in a moment....here in Pennsylvania, back in a moment....here in Pennsylvania, back in a moment....here in Pennsylvania, back in a moment....here in Pennsylvania, back in a moment....here in Pennsylvania, back in a moment. I get it. The cost of rent, groceries, and utilities is too high. So here's what we're going to do about it. We will lower housing costs by building more homes and crack down on landlords who are charging too much.

We will lower your food and grocery bills by going after price gougers who are keeping the cost of everyday goods too high. I'm Kamala Harris, and I approve this message because you work hard for your paycheck. You should get to keep more of it. As president, I'll make that my top priority. Bob and I both voted for Donald Trump. I voted for him paycheck. You should get to keep more of it. As president, I'll make that my top priority. Bob and I both voted for Donald Trump. I voted for him twice. I won't vote for him again. January 6 was a wake-up call for me. Donald Trump divides people. We've already seen what he has to bring. He didn't do anything to help us. Kamala Harris, she cares about the American people. I think she's got the wherewithal to make a difference. I've never voted for a Democrat. Yes, we're both lifelong Republicans.

The choice is very simple. I'm voting for Kamala. I am voting for Kamala Harris. Of 100 Republicans who worked in national security for Presidents Reagan, both Bushes, and for President Trump, now endorsing Harris for president. She came up as a prosecutor, an attorney general, into the Senate. She has the kind of character

that's gonna be necessary in the presidency. Vice President Harris is standing in the breach at a critical moment in our nation's history. We have a shared commitment as Americans to do what's right for this country. This year, I am proudly casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris. Former generals, secretaries of defense, secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, CIA directors, and National Security Council leaders,

under Democratic and Republican presidents, Republican members of Congress, and even former Trump administration officials agree there's only one candidate fit to lead our nation, and that's Kamala Harris. I'm Kamala Harris, and I approve this message. Hello, we're the Critter Fixers. I'm Dr. Bernard Hodges. And I'm Dr. Terrence Ferguson. And you're tuned into Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, we are live at the Mary Dodd Memorial Chapel here on the campus of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Glad to be here. Let's introduce, we've got our virtual panel plus our panel here.

Of course, Dr. Greg Carr, Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University. Joining us from out of D.C., Recy Colbert, host of the Recy Colbert Show, Sirius XM Radio, Washington, D.C., along with Victoria Burke. Of course, Black Press USA out of Arlington, Virginia. Joining me here at Lincoln University, Dr. Brenda Allen. She is president of Lincoln University. Glad to see her. Dr. Kielobaha Mapunye.

He is a visiting Fulbright political science professor from South Africa and also Drake Smith student activist. And so glad to have both panels here. I want to kick these things off with this first. Today in Detroit, Trump spoke to the Detroit Economic Club. And if you're from Detroit, you probably didn't like this. I don't think anything that we're talking about today is high on our list. The whole country is going to be like, you want to know the truth? It'll be like Detroit. Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she's your president. You're going to have a mess on your hands.

Detroit, if y'all need any reason to turn out, this probably is a good reason. I want to kick things off with our normal Thursday panel. So let me do this here, Reesey. Reesey, I got to let you know first, Reesey, we're doing this from the Memorial Chapel at Lincoln University, okay? So I know your penchant for cussing is high. So I just want you to know we have audio that is running in the chapel, Reesey. So this needs to be a cuss-less Thursday, Recy.

So I need to give you that warning first. So I'll start with you. Again, that comment right there, if there's any way to motivate folk in Detroit to vote, he just flat out just insulted the entire Motor City. First of all, Roland, I saw that big crop. I saw that big crop. And I heard Memorial Day. I'm going to be on my best behavior tonight. But thank you

for the reminder. Yeah, it was disrespectful. Yeah, it was disrespectful. And you know by he means black people. He means that the black girl president is going to make the whole country Black. Anybody should want to see it. So that's really what it was called for. But this is the same person that said to Black voters, what do

you have to lose? Your lives are hell, you know, and things like that. And so he has consistently been disrespectful. This is the same person that also tried to get the voters, the votes in Detroit and in Milwaukee and in Philadelphia thrown out. And so the disrespect is part of a pattern, a very long pattern. We'll see if this is what takes people over the edge. I hope so, because I have't seen reports that people are less motivated in terms of the on-the-ground reports

in areas like Detroit. So black people in Detroit, stand on business. Don't let Trump get up there and play your face like that. Lauren, we've seen this. To Reese's point, when you look at the 2020 election, the January 6th was about

people who voted in four cities. And he would often criticize it. He would say Fulton County. He really means Atlanta. He would say Philadelphia. He would say Detroit. He would say Milwaukee. In Wisconsin, they did a partial recount in 2020.

The recount only took place in Milwaukee. Trump told his white supporters, it was those black people is the reason why I lost. Yeah. Well, to quote you, Roland Martin, it's killing him that and it was killing him at the time. And it's going to probably do so again, that black voters is what won it for Joe Biden in 2020. It was killing him that Detroit and Philly and Atlanta made the difference and Milwaukee made the difference. He hated that. He hates thinking about that. This entire race has been about vilifying immigrants. That's what he's doing. Whether it's Congo or Venezuela

or Mexican-Americans or Mexican immigrants, that is what he's made this entire campaign about, is a white supremacist campaign right in front of our face. And The New York Times, for some reason, the so-called paper of record, doesn't want to bring that up. And CNN keeps having panels where they're normalizing it. It's a strange situation. And quite frankly, probably one of the most racist campaigns we've seen in a long time. Even if you go back and look at the footage of George Wallace and Lester Maddox, even those two guys were fairly careful about not saying it like right in front of your face. Donald Trump is done with that. And the media is failing us. The

mainstream media is failing us when it comes to pointing out that this is a straight up racist campaign. He does it every single day. He did it again today in Detroit and tomorrow will be something else. On that particular point, Greg, I keep making this point. It drives me crazy when I look at these political reporters on social media and when they're talking about voters and they keep going back to, oh, how Harris is just not doing well with the working class union workers. And I'm like, no, she's doing real good with black working class union workers. She's doing real well with black working class union workers. She's doing real well with Latino working class union workers. They just won't say the word white because they don't want to deal with the reality of whiteness. When they talk about identity politics, that's only black, that's only Latino, that's only Asian, that's only LGBTQ, that's women.

But they don't want to deal with white. And we can't ignore the reality. When you look at the numbers, how can you have Teamsters? In fact, guys, let me know if y'all have that Teamsters ad they put together, the Teamsters for Harris. Biden-Harris saved 600,000 Teamsters pensions, and they could not endorse her. And the president said on the podcast it was down the middle of 50-50.

And I'm going, they save your behinds, but you still are going to support a dude who had a rally, supposedly, and had people dressed as autoworkers, and then when they interviewed them, they found out they were not actually autoworkers. Yeah, absolutely, Ronan. This is a man who is the master of one thing, undisputably. He's the master of vibes. He understands white supremacy vibes. He's a creature of pop culture and television, and he knows how to communicate past facts. Some of these same people are the ones

who are saying that Kamala Harris is seeding the clouds and creating the hurricanes and sending them to red counties to stop people from voting. And they say that with their whole heart, because this is the way that, to echo what you said, Lauren, race has eaten the American mind. By the way, go Lions. Good to see you, President Allen. Since the former interim president of Lincoln University, James Donaldson, made transition about five years ago this month. Actually, I came down to Howard for the funeral. So Dean Lynetta Lee, my man, Z's way. Poe, you know, Lincoln's close to my heart as an adopted Philadelphian.

So much love to y'all. But, you know, when we see what's going on, as as as we just heard Lauren say, race is front and center. And you're absolutely right. Lester Maddox in Georgia with his two-by-fours and George Wallace, even they didn't go this far. They were strict segregationists, for sure, at that time. But Donald Trump is a whole, full-blooded racist. And he has pulled out all the stops. He's not going to lose votes for what he said at Detroit today. He and Junior Varsity Vance are quadrupling down on the bet that they will gain votes. That's where we are. Something in the Civil Rights Monitor report that Maya Wiley just walked through and that you walked through with her was, I think, kind of remarkable to me. Seventy percent of folks who polled had heard of and were familiar with Project 2025.

I don't know about you, Roland. Maybe you'll say a few words about this or someone else will. I don't know that a document, that 922-page document, something that heavy, has been that much a part of national dialogue since maybe the Pentagon Papers in terms of something that regular rank-and-file people, if you say that, and whether they've read it or not, whether they know that Project 2025 is just one pillar of a four-pillar game plan they have with their database of 11,000 as of June people ready to go into the federal government with their boot camp should they win to train those people, and with Part 4, which aligns with his Agenda 47, to put those people in place and wipe out all of the people who work in the federal government and replace them with these automatons.

You know, the fact that people know that is truly something for me in this moment I find remarkable. It's cut through the noise. Now, the question is, as you say, is going to be whether we are going to back up that awareness with action, because if we don't go to the ballot box, then all of that is for naught. And we're facing something we probably haven't seen in this country since, in fact, the Civil War. Dr. Allen, I want to pick up on that point, because the thing that I have been consistently saying, I did an interview the other day on a podcast, and they asked me about the election. I said, let me be real clear. I said, with where I am in my life,

where I am economically, I said, I can be unfazed whether Trump or Harris wins. I said, but I can't vote solely based upon my pocketbook. I said, I am going so hard in this because my decisions are based upon my nieces and nephews. You are the president of young folks here. And when I look at the numbers, when I look at the turnout numbers, when I look at the number of folks who were looking to sit this thing out and sit on the numbers, when I look at the turnout numbers, when I look at the number of folks who were looking to sit this thing out and sit on the couch, what I keep saying, and this is not condemning any voter that's between the ages of 18 and 25 or 18 and 29, what I keep saying is, literally, the decisions made by who wins and loses will have an impact on those very folk for the next 30, 40, 50 years.

And so no one can say, I can just sit this out. What have been the conversations on this campus that you have been saying to folk who say, oh, I love Lincoln, but they're going to realize state funding, federal funding, research dollars. I mean, so this notion that what's happening in D.C. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way.

In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players

all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote

drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working,

and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley

comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad it's really really really bad listen to new episodes of absolute season one taser incorporated on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts binge episodes one two and three on may 21st and episodes four five and six on june 4th episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else but never forget yourself self-love made me a better dad because i realized my worth never stop being a dad that's dedication find out more at fatherhood.gov brought to you by the u.s department of health and human services and the ad Council. Not impact Lincoln University is dead wrong. So the conversation on this campus has been about your vote matters.

And we are, first of all, concerned that people exercise that vote, but that they exercise that vote as informed citizens. And so, you know, it's a two prime thing here. We started with new first-year students coming in. We did a nice glow walk on the track at night, come out, just register to vote, and just getting the first-year students to understand that the importance of voting, that we had support for them to be able to register to vote, information on how to get an absentee ballot if they are, if their address is in their home state. But really having a question, not necessarily the conversation just about getting out the

vote, but why it is important that you exercise your vote. And if you want to talk about why it's important to exercise your vote, then you have to understand what the issues are. So it's not enough to fall on one side or another. As a university, our job is to really expose students to all those ideas and really push them and help them to develop the kind of critical analytic skills that it takes to really think through why it matters. And so individuals who think that this is

about today have not necessarily been challenged to think about, but what about tomorrow, right? And so as we talk about the importance of the 2024 election, it's not about what happens in January of 2025. It's about the impact of these issues going forward. And given what you learn and what you know and what you understand and what your experiences are, how might your vote actually set us up for the next 25, 30 years? So, you know, combined with getting the vote out, also opportunities to talk about the issues in a broader fashion. If we think about all the things that we're seeing on the news, the thing that pains me the most as an educator is that people are making conclusions and they don't really understand.

They don't understand history. They haven't taken into consideration culture. They haven't taken into consideration all the different myriad of issues that come together to sort of create the situation that we're in right now. And it's easy to fall on one side or the other based upon what you know in the immediate. But when you bring a lot of knowledge to that, you can make a better decision. And so being informed, I think, is really very important. Drake, y'all have been real busy registering 400 some odd students. But what have those conversations been like?

Have you had to deal with folks who have said, man, my vote don't matter. I'm not interested. I'm too busy. I got other stuff going on. I can't worry about that. But then they might be complaining about stuff. And then you're like, well, you do know that voting plays a role in that sort of stuff happening. So what have those discussions been like on campus with your fellow students?

It was almost like you've been here for those discussions because it's verbatim, right? Yeah, because it's the same conversation at TSU, Tennessee State. It's all around the country. Again, it travels. Yeah, and we've been doing this work for three years okay i'm a senior so i've been doing this since my freshman year and it used to be where we're like like pulling teeth right you have students are very excited oh yes i've been looking for you all i want to register to vote then you have students that are just not educated on the issues

right and that's not to blame them i think that's to blame their environments where they're from right because there's a concerted effort to stop us or give us fake news about what's going on. And sometimes you have to sit down and talk to somebody. And other times we realize that it's not just one interaction. Right. That one interaction you tell them, well, vote November 5th. I tell people, well, if you're undecided right now, just register. So by the time November 5th comes around, you still can vote, right? You can be franchised. And each time we meet with them, we're like planting a seed, right?

And it grows and it grows, and we're getting the information, watering it, and hopefully we'll sprout into like a civilly engaged student. But shout out to we have a group, Project 26. It's called Project 26. So the 26th Amendment gave 18-year-olds the right to vote, and they've registered over 400 students on our campus. The college Democrats, in a nonpartisan way, have been doing voter registration. They've registered another 120 students. Our advisor, Ms. Jacqueline Caleb, is in the audience right now.

She's been doing this work for 30 years. So I think a lot of people, when they're focused on HBCUs and voting, they think that we don't know what we're doing. But we've had people on the ground that have been doing this for over 30 years, and we've been so good at it that actually in 2012, and someone correct me if I'm wrong, the county commissioners moved our voting place off of campus because we came out in droves. See, there you go. 2008, 2009. See, that's what's happening at Prairie View and Waller County and some of the different places. And we also are seeing that on the college campuses all across the country. Tarrant County Commissioners in Fort Worth is, the Republicans tried to move the early

voting location off the University of Texas at Arlington campus for that very reason. I remember in, I think it was the 2012 or 16, there was a county clerk in Wisconsin who admitted that they moved early voting locations off of college campuses because they said too many students were voting. And they were voting Democrat. And so they moved it to a far out place with a small parking lot because they wanted to frustrate the folks from actual voting. Doc, I want to go to you because on May 10th of this year was the 30th anniversary of the inauguration of Nelson Mandela. And I was actually at I was at a jazz festival in California. Jonathan Butler performed. I got a chance to talk to him about that. And and it will be in my mind for as long as I live.

Those massive lines of people. And I remember the stories of several people who were elderly who died waiting in line to cast that ballot for Nelson Mandela. When you look at some places in this country that has 32, 35, 40, some places where I saw a text where somebody said, if 50% of Detroit turns out, I'm going to be excited and she's going to win. And the person responded, 50%? So it has to be frustrating

to see where we used to be, then where we are now, and then look at those numbers of folk who choose the couch as opposed to the ballot box. Absolutely. It's quite an exciting moment for me to be in the United States because I'm from South

Africa. Full price call, I researched how on elections and I've seen it all. The 30 years that you are talking about very, very impressive for us. South Africa just celebrated 30 years of those elections which were the end all elections because

they got rid of apartheid. At that time, many people were very excited to vote because for all those years, black people were not allowed to vote. So people felt that this election was so historic that they would rather sacrifice everything, even sleeping outside the voting stations or polling stations before they vote. Others came around like 2 a.m., 4 a.m., camping outside.

So yes, you are right. Where we have been is that hunger for changing things through the ballot. But now where we are currently is the lethargy, where people think, oh, if I vote, it's not going to make any difference. There's a slogan in South Africa. They say, if you don't vote, don't complain. See, I have one that says says vote or shut the hell up. That's the one that I use. But that's real because, again, when you talk to people and they start complaining about, well, this and this and this,

I tell people all the time, there is no issue that anyone can bring up to me that does not trace back to politics. Politics has a role in it. Listen, Elon Musk can talk all this crap he wants to about being the richest person in the world and everything along those lines. That happened because of tax breaks. That's government. He got billions in tax subsidies from the city, county, and state governments in order to build his wealth.

He wouldn't pull another up by his bootstraps, and I bring him up because we know he's the son of apartheid. That's why I brought him up. But again, that's the perfect example that people just think, oh no, that person is self-made. No, that's government-made. Absolutely.

And some of us as political scientists who teach politics, we know that it all almost eventually rolls back to politics because it's about power. It's about who has power, who has it, and who wants that power and who wants to retain it. We are having a similar situation in Africa with our elections whenever elections come. Earlier, when one of your reporters was speaking, this talk about post-election violence, those for me are the red flags that we normally worry about when we talk about elections. The other one, of course, is the red flags that we normally worry about when we talk about elections.

The other one, of course, is the weather, which might drive people away. But as a researcher myself, also looking at your elections here in the US, I get worried about the so-called vacillating or uncertain voters, because those are the people that, number one, are uncertain. Am I going to vote? Am I not going to vote? Even if they are on the queue, some of them just might change their mind and go back home. They are uncertain voters. And sometimes those people can swing the election in one direction or the other. So those are the things that

I'm looking at. Of course, there are key issues also that have come up this evening in your discussion. You know, the issue of the economy, for instance. I'm not so sure about the international issues. I know they are also coming in there. And I'm actually just studying quietly as a researcher to say how will it go. Maybe you can talk to us later after this election, you know, once it has been declared, and hopefully there won't be any violence or post-election violence thereafter. Well, it ain't going to be violence from black people, I can tell you that. So we know where it will come from. I'm going to go to a break. ain't going to be violence from black people, I can tell you that. So we know where it will come from. I'm going to go to a break. We're going to come back. We're going to talk about

those people who have been disenfranchised when it comes to voting. I'm also going to tell you about what's happening in Nebraska, where their state Supreme Court just keeps waiting and they're getting close to the deadline to make a decision that impacts several thousand formerly incarcerated folks. And so we're

going to talk about that next right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered, the Black Star Network. Don't forget to support the work that we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. Senior Check and Money order the PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C. 20037-0196. PayPal is rmartinunfiltered. Venmo is rmunfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back. IVF is a miracle for us because it allowed us to have our family. After having my daughter, I wanted more children. But my embryo transfer was canceled

eight days before the procedure. Donald Trump overturning Roe v. Wade stopped us from growing the family that we wanted. I don't want politicians telling me how or when I can have a baby. We need a president that will protect our rights, and that's Kamala Harris. I'm Kamala Harris, and I approve this message.

...of 100 Republicans who worked in national security for Presidents Reagan, both Bushes, our rights. And that's Kamala Harris. I'm Kamala Harris, and I approve this message. Of 100 Republicans who worked in national security for Presidents Reagan, both Bushes, and for President Trump, now endorsing Harris for president. She came up as a prosecutor, an attorney general, into the Senate. She has the kind of character that's going to be necessary in the presidency. Vice President Harris is standing in the breach at a critical moment in our nation's history. We have a shared commitment as Americans to do what's right for this country. This year, I am proudly casting my vote

for Vice President Kamala Harris. Former generals, secretaries of defense, secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, CIA directors, and National Security Council leaders under Democratic and Republican presidents, Republican members of Congress, and even former Trump administration officials agree there's only one candidate fit to lead our nation, and that's Kamala Harris. I'm Kamala Harris and I approve this message. Here's a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems. Oh, she had a big crowd. Oh, the crowd.

This weird obsession with crowd sizes. It just goes on on, and on. America's ready for a new chapter. We are ready for a President Kamala Harris. I'm Kamala Harris, and I approve this message. Bruce Smith, creator and executive producer of The Proud Family, louder and prouder. You're watching Roland Martin Unkilled. All right, folks, welcome back to Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, where we are broadcasting live. Glad to be here in the Dow Memorial Chapter.

Let's talk about felony disenfranchisement. Forty-eight states have laws that keep folks from voting who are formerly incarcerated. Yet, of course, you have somebody who is a convicted felon who is running for president. But let's be real clear, okay, Donald Trump ain't the same convicted felon as some brother who's in Philadelphia, who's in Detroit, who's in Houston or anywhere else. Because remember, they didn't take his mugshot. They didn't fingerprint him, but no perp walk, none of that sort of stuff. And so this idea that they are the same, that is simply not the case.

So you have right now, folks, an estimated 4 million people, 17, 1.7 percent of the voting age population who are ineligible to vote. And it's even worse in various places. So you take Nebraska. So the folks in Nebraska, now if you want to know how these Republicans operate, the folks in Nebraska literally passed a law allowing folks who were formerly incarcerated to be able to vote. The Secretary of State and Attorney General said general said oh that's unconstitutional i've never heard in my life where an attorney general or secretary of state issued a ruling

about a law the legislature passed calling unconstitutional well they sued and it's now before the nebraska state supreme court but they've actually waited on a decision. And so the next time they rule will be October 18th, which is actually the deadline to register to vote in Nebraska. So it shows you what's going on here. And then when you look at Tennessee, a place where more than 20 percent of black folks are unable to vote there as a result of formerly incarcerated. So joining us right now is Kara Gorsh, the executive director of the Sentencing Project. Kara, glad to have you here. I mean, this is a real issue.

We saw what happened in Florida. Amendment 4 gets passed there by more than 60% to restore the voting rights of formerly incarcerated. What do Republicans do there? Go back, oh, no, they start changing the laws and then say, no, you've got to pay all of your fines and everything before you can actually get your right to vote. Then some of the folks in the last election did register. And then what did Governor Ron DeSantis do? Said the police after them arrested them, and all those cases got booted, but it's a chilling effect against them. That was the brother in Texas who waited six hours in line. He was

later arrested, and it was found that he could vote, but they went back and he said, I will never vote again because I can't go through what I went through because I'm scared to get arrested. And so you see that happening all across the country where Republican governors and other leaders want to scare formerly incarcerated to keep them from voting. And we see this over and over and over again. Absolutely. There's no doubt that politicians are using the confusion around voting, disenfranchisement laws to suppress voting across the country. Part of the challenge around these laws is that they are just so disparate. If you live in Maine and Vermont, you will never lose your right to vote because of a felony

conviction. People in prison vote. They have candidate forums in prisons in those states. That is not the case in 10 states where for the rest of your life, in some circumstances, you can be barred from voting. It creates immense confusion for people directly impacted. It creates immense confusion for public officials. And what we see is people, not only people who can legally not vote because of the disenfranchisement laws are affected, but also people are de facto disenfranchised because they don't know what the laws are. A real easy way to clear up the confusion is for us not to entangle the criminal justice

system and all the racism and inequality in that criminal justice system with our democracy. And so that failing disenfranchisement laws should not exist, and everyone should be allowed to vote regardless of their criminal conviction history. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got

B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to

new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1.

Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else. But never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication.

Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Here's a perfect, what I was talking about, let's see if I can pull this tweet up here. Give me one second. This tweet here is from, to deal with Boats Magazine, and said that, so while Nebraska's GOP officials getting away with a unilateral summer decision,

you stop applying two laws that allow people to get their voting rights restored, suddenly barring tens of thousands of voters. He then says this is estimated to affect up to 100,000 people who should otherwise have the right to vote next month. Now, why is that important? Well, because in Nebraska, they award the electoral colleges electoral votes based upon how you perform in the congressional districts. And so they have one vote that's typically blue, which is where Omaha is. Who is largely incarcerated in Nebraska, other states? Black people. Where are they going to live in Nebraska?

In Omaha. And so if the Supreme Court does not rule in this case, these folks are not going to vote. And then that's people who likely are not going to be casting ballots for Vice President Kamala Harris that can impact that one electoral college vote. I mean, that's so for people to understand how serious this is, that's how deep this thing drills down. Yeah. Up until about 20 years ago, Nebraska was a permanent lifetime disenfranchisement state. And the legislature, about 20 years ago, expanded access to voting and expanded voting rights for people with founding convictions, but created a two-year waiting period. And this year is when the legislature eliminated that two-year waiting period. About 7,000 people got the right to vote

back. What is in question now before the Supreme Court in Nebraska is not just about those 7,000 people got the right to vote back. What is in question now before the Supreme Court in Nebraska is not just about those 7,000 people, but it's about anyone with a felony conviction who may even have been voting in the last 20 years and whether they have continued to have that right to vote. It's a really immense impact that this ruling will have if they come down on the side of the Attorney General in that state and the Secretary of State. Certainly, the legislature does not agree with the Attorney General's position, and it has been the law of the land for 20 years in that state. And so to change it now, days before, weeks before an election, where people have been voting for years, it's unheard of and inexplicable.

Folks often say that, hey, y'all need to get over this slavery Jim Crow stuff. When you look at many of these laws, they actually date back to Reconstruction. When you look at the number in Tennessee, when you look at Mississippi, when you look at Alabama and others, we literally are dealing today with laws related to formerly incarcerated folks, felony convictions that date back to post-slavery that was directed at formerly enslaved people of African descent? Absolutely. I mean, there is a direct correlation between the origination of felony disenfranchisement laws in this country and the Jim Crow and Jim Crow policies. The intention, some lawmakers, there is legislative history in Virginia where

lawmakers explicitly said that the motivation for passing that state's lifetime disenfranchisement policy was to bar former slaves from voting and black people in the state from voting. It was not, they were explicit. And that is the history of that law. That is the history of that law. Kara, hold on. So what he actually said was, this is to keep the niggas from voting. That's actually, no, no, that was actually, it was a state lawmaker who made that comment on the floor of the assembly,

explicitly stated, this is why we're passing this law. And it was when Terry McAuliffe was governor uh they then began uh to make some changes then he did it unilaterally the Republican sued said no you have to actually uh you have to actually write out for each person uh and so then they begin to do that and so uh they even tried to stop that because he felt he can do it just in one fell swoop. He said, no, you can literally grant each individual their right to vote. So he was like, well, you know, get the automatic pen out. Let's get this thing going. But the reason I'm stating that is because I need people to understand that when we're fighting these laws, people are trying to say, oh, no, no, no, those things will later change.

No, the original intent in Mississippi, in Tennessee, in Virginia and other places, it was explicit to keep black people. They call them the N-word. They call them coons. In other words, from voting. It was nobody else. It was black people. I think what we have seen over time is because of the onset of mass incarceration over the last 50 years, where the population of people with criminal convictions has exploded, disproportionately communities of color, black communities in particular, are affected by our criminal justice system. We have seen a growth in the disenfranchised, a significant growth in the disenfranchised population in our history and a disproportionate impact on black communities in particular. Now, African-Americans of voting age are three times more likely to be disenfranchised

compared to non-African Americans. In some states, as you talked about earlier, like Tennessee, the rates are much higher for Black voting age adults. So it has a huge racial disparity in who it's impacting, and it's suppressing the voice of Black communities. And that is ultimately the real challenge here and why this is a human rights, civil rights issue of our time that we really need to take on if we're serious about our democracy, if we're serious about making sure that communities, black communities and Latino communities are represented in our government. Because while there has been progress, 4 million people in this country cannot vote because of a felony conviction.

And we need to do more. We need to stop the suppression of voting. We need to stop the disproportionate disenfranchisement of Black communities and make sure that their voices are heard and that they're able to represent the interests of their families in the polling places and at the ballot box. In polling places. Last question for you. When you talk about those four million, what are the top five states that have felony disenfranchisement? And how many people are we talking about? Well, if we're talking about the racial disparity and its impact,

filling disenfranchisement's impact on Black communities, the top five states for disenfranchisement are Florida. Certainly, Florida has the largest number of people who are disenfranchised in the country of the four million people. And I should say we have a new report out today called Lockdown 2024. You can find it on our website. Of the 4 million people who are disenfranchised, over 700, close to 800,000 people live in the state of Florida. Florida is one of the top, and the disproportionate number of people impacted are Black Floridians. Tennessee also has significant racial disparity, the highest racial disparity, in who is disenfranchised in that state. Arizona, also in that state. Kentucky, also one of the highest disenfranchisement for African Americans in the country. And South Dakota,

also in the top five. So it is broad, but there is a disproportionate emphasis in the southeast where disenfranchisement policies have the biggest impact on black communities. All right. Kara, we sure appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it. I want to talk about this with our panel here and our virtual panel.

And, Lauren, I want to start with you because Republicans right now, they are looking at an opportunity when it comes to black men in this election. And so Donald Trump wants to start touting the First Step Act. And this is where and Democrats have not done this, Lauren. But this is where Democrats need to be reminding people. First of all, the First Step Act was passed by Democratic Congress. The bill was strengthened when it went to the Senate because Senator Kamala Harris, Senator Cory Booker, Senator Dick Durbin, and also Republican Chuck Grassley said make the bill better. And so this is a perfect example. They cannot let Donald Trump walk out here trying to communicate with black men by saying, I freed all these black men.

Now they're now they're out of prison with the First Step Act. in the Kamala Harris and her campaign, you go ahead right now and you say, as president, I want Congress to now introduce and pass the Second Step Act. Your thoughts? The First Step Act was really just a toy for Jared Kushner and others and doesn't really do, doesn't impact that many people. Obviously, it's a federal bill. So only impacting, you know, those who are incarcerated on the federal level. You know, I do think that this

constant discussion with regard to black male voters, I cannot wait until the evidence is in, because this discussion is something that comes up a lot, but what we know in reality is that black voters, of course, are the Democratic Party's most loyal voting bloc, starting with black women and then followed by black men. I do think that when we look at the registrations that came in right after Vice President Harris entered this race, that level of energy and excitement and enthusiasm was not to be doubted. Certainly black women, particularly younger black women, were the tip of the spear on that. But it's hard for me to imagine that there are not black men in the same generation that are not just as excited,

because this is, of course, a historic moment, and everybody recognizes that it's a historic moment. Right now, I can only speak for Virginia, although I'd probably end up in another state at some point looking at folks at canvases and door-knocking and all that. There's a high degree of excitement and a high degree of energy on the Democratic side. So I do think that this constant talking from Donald Trump about black men only in—as it is connected to the incarceration system, I think is problematic, you know. But whatever. I don't think that that's going to work.

And I think that the election results are going to bear that out, that black men are going to once again be number two right after black women in support and dedication in terms of the rate of voting for the Democratic Party. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Sir, we are back in a big way, in a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all

reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-up way, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad

because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. But I do think it is an issue, and it is an issue that we have to pay attention to, Recy and Greg. I'm going to go to Greg first because when we look at the numbers, when you look at the numbers, 4,000 people had their sentence reduced because of the First Step Act, and 2,600 people got released. Now, we're not talking about massive numbers, but the reality is it is a powerful, it's a very powerful narrative.

When Alice Johnson was telling her story, the reality is this is about and it's still an election of margins. And if you are trying to tell a story and appealing to people in that way, you very well could peel off thousands of votes with the narrative. And so therefore, Democrats had better understand that you can't lose the narrative game, Greg, when you talk about this conversation, especially when if it doesn't pass the narrative game, Greg, when you talk about this conversation, especially when if it doesn't pass the House led by Democrats, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, Cedric Richmond, the late Congressman Sheila Jackson Lee, it don't even get to the Senate and Trump can't even sign it.

Of course, you're right. Of course. I don't know, brother. You know, the whole Republican strategy has been for quite some time, and it's only intensified of everything from precinct captains to poll watchers in Detroit, one of my very good friends and comrades on the faculty at Howard, her mother has been a poll worker for decades, literally decades. She checked in last week to confirm where her regular place would be and was told that, oh, we tried to call you a few weeks ago to confirm that you'll be there, but since we didn't hear from you, you won't be working the polls this time.

I'm not talking about she's been there for a year or five years or 10 years or 15 years. I'm talking about decades she's been working the polls. So the dirty tricks are in the fix. Now, how does that relate to what you're walking us through right now? Well, we know that that district in Nebraska, that little Lynn Graham flew out there to beg, bye bye, beg to try to get to flip that Nebraska legislature to flip red. When that failed because of one legislator too close, one legislator. Now they, of course, had their backup plan, which is their dual plan, which is to go to the courts and try to get it through. And of course, delay, delay, delay is their tactic.

That's what's kept Trump out of jail. That's what they hope will allow them to drag his carcass across the finish line on November the 5th. But ultimately, all of these things are delaying the inevitable. And that's where I want to go with that. A Lincoln grad, of course, the great Francis Kwame Nkrumah, was famous for saying, seek ye first the political kingdom. The fight in this country is over political power. And in a Federalist society, where the states have all this power in terms of elections, the Federalist system was set up when we weren't a factor. As we have become a factor, certainly over the last half century, they realize now that

their only hope is to shave off margins and stave off the demographic shift long enough to maintain their white minority rule. That becomes a problem. For those people who are familiar with the—what do they call it?—the Electoral College Pact, where if you can get enough states to sign to agree to this pact—I think 17 of them have signed up so far, the National Popular Vote Pact—if you can get 270 electoral votes worth of states to agree to this, to agree to the idea that whoever wins the popular vote in the national election, those states representing 270 or more electoral college votes will award their electoral college votes to that person. That will blow up the electoral college without having to amend the Constitution. Imagine, y'all, they're trying to hang Tim Walz for saying the other day that he thinks the electoral college should be abolished.

That's because they are white supremacists. They're not talking about everybody participating. If they can shave off a couple of people of felon's conviction here, a couple there, then the felon they love will be returned to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And he, like the rest of the felons in Florida, can't vote in the election. But it won't matter. It's so interesting, Recy, because I was seeing the other day Bruce Bartlett, longtime Republican, had this whole Twitter thread where he talked about how Republicans engineered this and how when they split the Dakotas up, they purposely split the Dakotas up into two states known full well

that they would have those votes moving forward. So it was a fascinating thread. But on this point here, this is where I'm going to come to our panel here as well, Recy, that I need people to understand. This is why I keep telling black folks, if we are voting at less than 70% of our capacity, we are guaranteeing in some cases that we lose. If you look at the numbers, I mean, it's not hard. If black people voted at 70% of our capacity in Atlanta,

70% of our capacity in Detroit, 70% of our capacity in Philadelphia, 70% of our capacity in Philadelphia, 70% of our capacity in Milwaukee, meaning if 70% of 51 percent turnout in Detroit as opposed to 48 percent turnout for Hillary Clinton in 2016. Now, obviously, that's not entirely black, but you can attribute that to mostly black people. So 70 percent, yes, that's a game changer. But we're talking about even the difference between 48% and 51%. The problem is that we are not voting our capacity. This is not even talking about people that are not registered to vote. The reality is this country has 240 million people who are eligible to vote,

but we're only expecting 160 million people to actually cast ballots in this election. And so Republicans can get away with gerrymandering state legislatures. They can get away with gerrymandering the congressional seats, and they can get away with the electoral college because 80 million people stay home in these presidential elections and even more people stay home in these midterms. And so as it relates to black people specifically, we can make the difference in states like Mississippi, which has never had a black person, at least post-Reconstruction, elected to the Senate. You can get Cindy Hyde-Smith out of there. You can make the difference in all of these states. But we are too hell-bent on staying home.

Now, part of that is we're disaffected and disillusioned, and a lot of us feel like it doesn't matter who is in office. That is categorically untrue. If we exercise our power, we make the difference. If we don't, then we are abdicating our power to the MAGA people. And they have diametrically opposite views on which direction this country should go in. Donald Trump is making it clear, and so is J.D. Vance. So is J.D. Vance. Drake, we actually saw that in the last three years, where especially after the 2020 election, Mom for Liberty ran folks for school boards all across the South in this state as well.

And guess what? They took over the school boards because they had low turnout. And one of the first things they did in South Carolina, two superintendents of the year, two separate superintendents, were fired by those school boards when they took over. And so this is where I am constantly saying,

and I'm curious to know when you were having this conversation, when you're talking with students, when you're having the conversations, are they understanding that the numbers are the numbers, that if we actually turned out at that 70%, we sweep elections. Like, it's not even close, but it's getting people to understand that their vote does actually matter. So when I talk elections to students, I want to make it as palatable as possible,

and I take it to a Lincoln level. And so I tell these students that, yes, you don't have students in these schools right now in the local school board. It's the Oxford Area School District. You don't have students in these schools, but you need to vote in these elections because that's why so much of the outside population doesn't know about Lincoln University and the history here, right, because they don't want to teach it in school. We went to the school board last year. You mean the local school board where the university is located? Yes. Go ahead.

Yes, yes. Oxford Area School District. They were trying to ban Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye. They were trying to ban a lot of books on LGBT plus issues. They were trying to ban the book The Hate U Give, right? The people hadn't even read the books. And then we get there and four of us go. We give these eloquent speeches on why you shouldn't ban it, da-da-da. And you shouldn't

just ban it because it's a moral issue. You shouldn't have these school board members ban it because the school boards keep getting sued over First Amendment issues and they keep losing. That's thousands of dollars. That's reckless spending of taxpayer dollars. I also tell students that with the local elections, not just the school board, but your state rep election, that impacts the school, right? I tell students, I always say, what they do in New York is not impacting you right now. What they do in Maryland is not impacting you right now. What's happening right here in Pennsylvania is impacting you. 14 of us had to march 66 miles on foot from Lincoln to Harrisburg because the state, and I'm being factual, state Republicans were holding up $19 million in funding to Lincoln.

It had passed the Democratic-controlled House. The Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, said he was going to sign it into law. The Republican-held Senate was not passing Lincoln's funding because we're in the same funding bucket as Temple, Penn State, and the University of Pittsburgh. We were guilty by association. So 14 of us took it upon ourselves to call the Freedom 14. We walked 66 miles on foot because I, to quote Joe Madison, one of my radio heroes and my frat brother, he said that what we need now is not a moment, but a movement. And the difference between a moment and a movement is sacrifice. So I tell

students, you need to get out, you need to vote. And actually this year, I'm very hopeful. Hold on, hold on. I'm curious. So fortunately y'all walked 66 miles. Why couldn't you convince a hundred? Why couldn't you convince 100? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Follow me here. There's a reason I'm asking that. Because how many students here? 1,600.

1,600 going to benefit from the 19 million. And the other thousands at the other three schools. Right. No, but the point I'm making is when y'all was sitting here planning like, hey, we need to do this here, I take it y'all talked to more than 14 to do it. We said to the whole school. But 14 said, let's do it. Why did others, what did others say? Nah, man, I know y'all trying to get that 19 million.

Because I'm sure these are the same people who complain about buildings on campus, we need this, we need that. Y'all were trying to go get $19 million. I'm just curious to know what that conversation was like trying to convince them that, hey, this is for all of us, not just 14 of us. I had all kinds of students come. Now you see why I asked that question? See, that's why I do this. He was like, what's the point of the question? I got this.

Live audience, ladies and gentlemen, we love it. And when we were playing this march, we had it sent out to the whole student body. We had meetings about it, rallies. And I think me and my other organizer, Mackenzie Hanks, we were both, I was naive, right? I thought we were going to have the Freedom 50. I thought it was going to be 50 students we were going to, we shall overcome all the way to Harrisburg. It was the Freedom 14. And students had logistical questions. Where are we going to sleep at? What are we going to eat? Can I bring my asthma medication? Right? Stuff like that. Then you have some students, and I think this is the

issue here. This is the issue with not just at HBCUs, but students across the board, they don't have the political acumen to see how these physical steps can really turn into actions with the statehouse. Because when we showed up, just the 14 of us, right, the bill ended up getting passed, the governor signed it at Lincoln's campus. When the 14 of us went to those Republican offices, I said, hi, my name is Drake Smith. We just walked 66 miles from Lincoln University in lower Chester County. Say that again, young man.

We just walked 66 miles over three days from Lincoln University all the way to Harrisburg because the state promised us 19 million dollars and we don't have it. And you know I explained to them what this would do, what would happen to the school without the money, right? This is about 20% of our operating budget. Um you know 60, 60 percent of our uh of our um operating budget is from tuition and fees. So this is more pressure on the student body. 60 percent of our student body comes from tuition and fees. So this is more pressure on the student body. 60% of our student body comes from households that make less than $60,000 a year, right? That's poverty.

And I say Lincoln does the most with this money, right? We have produced world leaders, right? Kwame Nkrumah, as you heard earlier. Nnamdi Ezekiel, the current prime minister of Namibia. We have the first black member of Congress from Pennsylvania, Robert N.C. Nix. And we have the current mayor of Philadelphia, Sherelle Parker.

And Lincoln, Lincoln, I can go on a tangent about Lincoln, right? Lincoln is the nation's first re-entering HBC. We've done so much. We're celebrating 170 years right now, right? We need to vote now. I told this to the students. I told this to the right? We need to vote now. I tell this to the students. I tell this to the legislators. We need to vote now to make sure that

Lincoln will be here for another 170 years. This is the Keystone State. This is the Keystone University in that state. Right. But see, Doc, this is the thing that I want to know because what I say to people all across the

country, whether they are college students, whether they are in cities, whether they're in rural, you can yell, you can complain, you can moan, you can cry, you can pray. But you have to do something to actually make it happen. And so I'm saying, all right right it's not walking 66 miles but my god if you can't even go a mile to vote then how do you think you're gonna get anything and and that's the thing for me that we have to constantly explain to people. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.

Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This has kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care

for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple

Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time have you ever had to shoot your gun?

sometimes the answer is yes but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers.

But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you've got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else. But never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council.

People, you're guaranteed to get nothing if you sit on the couch. That's a guarantee. But there is a possibility that something can happen if you organize, mobilize. And not just vote, but what I keep saying, another one of our greatest failures, is that we don't keep that organization in place after the election to now put pressure to actually get the results. Your thoughts? Absolutely, you are correct. That's what normally happens.

In the elections, normally have three phases. The pre-election period, voting day itself, which we call election day, and then post-election day, and the months thereafter. Towards the election,

in the pre-election phase, people are very excited. There's a lot of noise, there's a lot of fanfare, and so on-election phase, people are very excited. There's a lot of noise, there's a lot of fanfare and so on. And of course on voting day there are some people who are uncertain, like I said, who are sitting on the fence, not sure whether they are going to vote or not vote and so on. Of course there are those who would have made their mind that, yes, I'm definitely going to vote and I'm going to vote for party X or Z. Come after the election,

it's like people now go to sleep. They forget that, by the way, they need to make sure that they keep those people that have voted into power accountable. Because if you drop the ball, you have to wait for another, what, four and a half years? You know, to check, have they even delivered on their mandate? So it's all about active citizenship. It's about responsible voting activity and behavior.

Because at the end of the day, it's about making sure that those people that you are electing, taking all the way to Congress, they are actually going to represent you and fulfill your mandate. It's basically about that. And I get worried, you know, the USA, the United States is known as among the best democracies in the world, but now if I hear about, you know, banning, some people being banned from doing, that's where apartheid comes from. In this month, on the 19th of October in 1977, and I was there in South Africa, apartheid South Africa, the apartheid government banned about 19 black organizations,

predominantly black organizations. The media, journalists, everything, banned. And, you know, outlawed, including my, you know, student organization. We wake up the following day, we are told you are members of a banned organization and actually anything that you do or say you shall be prosecuted. So, in a democracy

you don't want these banning rights and all those things and outlawing people's lawful legitimate right to express their feelings about how they have to be governed. It's about making sure that the universal declaration of human rights, which guarantees universal franchise rights,

has to be implemented. And of course, the USA has to set an example to other places, including in Africa, where we are being told that your democratic rights are limited.

You have to be learning from the advanced countries, right? That's what we have been told. But when I come here and I hear stories about some sections of the society apparently being disenfranchised, it's worrisome because we have to learn from someone. Right. Yeah. Doc, I want you to answer this here

because this is what kills me. And I'm going to get Greg, because this was just what kills me. Uh, and I'm gonna get Greg Reese and Lauren away in as well. It is stunning to me when we constantly talk about on this show, the $17 billion that HBCUs have received in the last three and a half years and to hear black folks say, well, that really ain't major. And I sit there and I go, are y'all crazy? So as an HBCU president,

can you just speak to, just speak to, and again, this is not about endorsing anybody, but just speak to the reality of what the last three and a half years has looked like compared to previous years when it comes to HBCU support. Yes, it's been really different. There's a White House initiative on HBCUs, and it's been around for a while. And there have been opportunities, but nothing at the magnitude of the opportunities that our schools have received in the last three

and a half years. At the end of the Trump administration, COVID came, and we did benefit, and our students benefited. And I think most colleges in this country are still open because of some of those laws that got through Congress and provided those funds. In the current administration, it has gone sort of on steroids in terms of just really thinking about how to not just directly invest, so directly invested in capital on our campuses. Our campuses, in many cases, are crumbling. And so some of the dollars have gone to really shore up some of the physical structures.

But the increase in Pell Grants, as Drake just said, 60, 65% of our students are Pell eligible, meaning that they come from the lowest socioeconomic. And in order to close the gap financially to afford the cost, those federal dollars become really very important. So like a COVID relief, how much did y'all get? Is this number right? Y'all got $36.8 million?

All total across the board, yeah. I just want to let folks know. See, I believe in, and again, that was Cap One forgiveness. That was CARES Act One, CARES Act Two. That was American Rescue Plan Act One and Act Two. Just so folks understand where the money came from. And $38 million during COVID, $38 million is consequential anyway, but during COVID it was even more important because we lost revenues

because of just the spread of COVID and the ways in which we had to do things on our campus so that we couldn't have a full complement of students here, yet we still had to run a full educational opportunity for those students. So to make sure that there was continuity of education. So those dollars really helped us to operate through a very tough time. But it doesn't stop there. There's also been in that $16, $17 billion, the investments that have been made in HBCU's ability to be a part of some of the federal contracts and grants. So it's opened up some great opportunities for research, for faculty, and for students to participate. And then there are the things that are happening more generally where the impact of those dollars are really impacting black and brown communities,

like the infrastructure grant, for example, the infrastructure bill, that's really helping us to get more people in the workforce around these more highly technical jobs. So take COVID out. Just take COVID out. If you were to compare what Lincoln received under, and this is just comparing, what Lincoln got under four years of Trump compared to four years of Biden, you got more from which administration? Well, definitely we got more from the Biden administration. Yes.

A lot more. A lot more, yeah Biden administration. Yes. A lot more. A lot more, yeah. Gotcha. Okay. Because the reason I say that is because I think when we have these conversations, and Reese, I want to bring you in here as well. When we have these conversations, we got to stop having the general conversations and we got to compare apples to apples. We got to be able to show folk, okay, this is what they did. This is what he did. This is what they did. Now you can sit here and make your decision on which one, but

facts are facts. I think what happens a lot of these times when we have these discussions, folks are just speaking in very general terms where I'm like, no, no, no, no. Let's be real specific about what happened here and what happened here. Because I'll never forget 1984 when Reagan was running for re-election. There was a lot of college Republicans. They were like, yeah, Reagan, Reagan, Reagan. And literally three weeks after the election, he came down with some massive cuts on Pell Grants. And there was a lot of college Republican white boys

who were crying on national news. And I was sitting there going, y'all wasn't paying attention last month when he said he was gonna cut her and again that's this is where i just think we have to hit our folks with facts this is what was done under four years this was done under these four years now you decide which one you want to vote for absolutely i mean i'm a big fan of getting specific so i'm not going to speak on HBCUs because you already covered those numbers. Let me speak on the STEMIs, because I'm hearing a lot of people say, reason can't talk about the stimulus checks.

I'm hearing a lot about how Trump gave us STEMIs. Here are the facts in terms of the STEMIs. First of all, there was a Democratic Congress, shout out to Nancy Pelosi, who ensured that you got those STEMIs because appropriations originate from the House of Representatives, the Congress. Shout out to Nancy Pelosi, who ensured that you got those STEMIs because appropriations originate from the House of Representatives, the Congress. Donald Trump hailed up some of those STEMIs because he wanted his name to go on those checks. The Biden-Harris administration, the first thing they did in the American Rescue Plan, which had no Republican votes, was give out STEMIs that amounted to $401,511,000,000,000,000, okay? So that is the checks that y'all got when Biden-Harris took over that only had Democratic votes. The Democrats were in charge of the Senate. The Democrats were in charge of the House. there were 167 million stimulus checks that were payments that were

sent out. Under Trump and the Democratic Congress, be clear, it was not a Republican trifecta. The first one was $271 million or billion dollars. The next one was $141 billion. And so this whole idea that Trump gave you all the STEMIs, where one stimulus check came out to almost as much as two stimulus checks under a Democratic Congress and Donald Trump signed it, is crazy. And that was completely on a partisan level, where the Democrats gave out $401 billion of stimulus checks.

The other two checks combined came out to $412 billion. So the idea that you only become flush with cash when Republicans are in office, when Donald Trump is in office, is a lie. And that's not even including the fact that things like unemployment assistance were rejected by people like Greg Kemp or Brian Kemp. I'm sorry. And other Republican governors. That's not even including the fact that you had Republican governors like Kay Ivey who spent covid money on prisons instead of shoring up the schools. That's not including the fact that we cut child poverty in half with the child tax credit for a year, which the Republicans obstructed and so on and so forth. So if we want to talk about dollars in hand, we can talk about a number of things. But one of those things that the Democrats did even better than Donald Trump did was give you STEMIs. And Lauren, when you go on top of that,

when you add in child care assistance, extended moratorium on evictions, and as Reese said, unemployment insurance, when you talk about student loans as well, like, I'm going to strangle somebody black who goes, well, you know, okay,

they forgave $160 billion in student loans, but I didn't get none. Well, like, you didn, okay, they forgave $160 billion in student loans, but I didn't get none. Well, like you didn't get it, but somebody else got it. Like I can't be mad at $160 billion. That's what kills. Like I saw one fool on social media. He was like, they need to get rid of all student loan debt.

And I'm going, I guess you didn't realize what the Supreme Court decided. Oh, I'm sorry. You didn't vote in 2016. And Trump got a chance to appoint three Supreme Court justices. So don't complain to me about a Supreme Court decision that came down the pipe several years later when you didn't vote in the election where you could have actually impacted who the Supreme Court person is. That to me is still is crazy when you see almost five million people and one hundred and sixty billion dollars that was actually provided in relief. That's real money, Lauren. Yeah, that is real money. Obviously, things like the child tax credit and the fact that the Republican Party has a history of going after federal employees, going after federal employee retirement. George

Bush wanted to privatize Social Security. Ronald Reagan messed up the civil service system. You used to be able to retire at 32 years at 80 percent of your salary. And then Ronald Reagan comes along and messes that up. Donald Trump, of course, is talking openly about eliminating several huge federal agencies, including the Department of Education. He's talking about somehow dismantling the FBI. These, of course, are all jobs, right? And the federal retirement system is the best in the country, actually, in terms of rate of return. And so, you know, the Republican Party is just really good at messing up people's money, trying to privatize it, trying to funnel it to their buddies.

And, you know, the problem, the real danger here is that we're dealing with a Donald Trump that would be, of course, on his second—were he to win, his second term in office is going to be a hell of a lot more dangerous if it happens than the first, because, of course, he would know a little bit more of what he was doing. And people like Steve Bannon and Steve Miller, this is all they talk about, is dismantling the federal government. So if we just looked at just federal employees, which is a place where a lot of African-Americans can go and get a guaranteed retirement, because none of this is subjective or up to somebody's opinion or whatever.

Everybody has the same retirement. Everybody's under the same retirement system and gets the same benefits. It's one of the best in the country. And the Republicans are openly talking about dismantling it. That alone should get people's attention, because it is amazing to me the Republican ability to sort of try to make people's lives more difficult, whether it's screwing around with people's health care, trying to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. Why? Why are they trying to do that? Or privatize things. I mean, this is just what they're up to. And these are real dollars and cents types of things that you can't get back again once they're lost.

You know, Greg, I think a lot of times when you look at, and this is just, I think, human instinct. You got a lot of folks who don't like to, they're like, oh, no, be humble. You know, don't take credit. No, sometimes you need to take credit. I remember when my six nieces were with me, I was like, oh, no, no, let me explain to y'all who bought all this stuff. And I was real clear, okay, that laptop cost two grand. Yeah, Uncle Roro paid for that.

Let me be real clear where the money came from. Oh, no, I was real clear. I break it down. And so to me, if I'm vice president of Kamala Harris, between now and election day, I would do a whole speech on we did that. That would be my hashtag. I'd be like, we did that. And we did that. And we did that and we did that and i keep telling y'all that scene from jungle fever when flipper wesley snipes when he quit and he was going through the office and he was pulling

down architect he's like mine mine mine mine mine mine mine mine that's how you gotta do this the reality is you're going up against somebody who take, Donald Trump took credit for a B, a veterans bill that Obama signed. Like we got actual video of Obama signing the bill and who took credit for he's still claiming he guaranteed funding for HBCUs when it was a 250 million dollar program and only 90 million went to HBCUs the rest were the Hispanic serving institutions and his budget zeroed it out of the budget and then it was Congressman Alma Adams, Congressman Bobby Scott and others who put it back in. Those are the facts. This is just where you got to just put that stuff aside. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott.

And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.

It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

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And learn to take credit for some stuff you did. You have to. You have to. You have to. We remember last month when the White House announced, what was it, about $1.3 billion in additional support for HBCUs, and you covered the story, putting this administration over the $17 billion mark collectively. There is the deep value of crowing loud, long, everywhere, because you are facing someone who is a liar to his DNA. There's an enthusiasm in the lying of Donald Trump.

And when you combine that with whatever brain disease that he has, whether it's untreated syphilis or some other malady that is causing the mush inside his skull to rot and fall through his ears. You have an unstoppable force, a person who is not dealing with reality. So, as you say, you've got to—you not only combat them with facts, you project it forward. I mean, if you want to appeal in an idiocracy like the United States of America to people's individual interests, then you can say something very simple. I mean, in that same White House press release release where they announced the additional $1.3 billion in funding around the second week of last month, September, they talked about how the United Negro College Fund

has researched, new research, recent research to say that HBCUs generate about $16.5 billion annually in economic impact on communities that they are in. And not only communities they are in, but the communities that they are in. And not only communities they are in, but the communities that their students are from and return to. Those students, and that generates over 136,000 jobs and $146 billion in collective lifetime earning for the graduates. Now, that should resonate in the Confederacy. I don't call it the old Confederacy, because those 11 states remain in the Confederacy,

as we heard Maya Wiley talk through the survey. Most of the states that restrict people who have been convicted of crimes from voting in the most egregious category, which includes paying all the money back, are in the Confederacy. Well, that's where the HBCUs are as well. So if you're in Georgia, if you're at Albany State, and if you Confederacy. Well, that's where the HBCUs are as well. So if you're in Georgia, if you're at Albany State, and if you're in Savannah State, if you are like you've been, and when you went to Savannah during the election cycle of 2020, if you are in South Carolina, as you have been, if you're in South Carolina State or Claflin, if you are in North Carolina

at A&T or North Carolina Central or Winston-Salem State or Salisbury State, not Salisbury State, if you're at any of the Elizabeth City State, then you should understand that not only are you registering to vote. I mean, I love the spirit of our brother Drake Smith, man. That's something right there when you put feet to pavement and walk. Whether I was a student body president, I know what it's like to go by yourself. And then after you win, everybody say they was going. But I know what that is, brother. But your command of facts speaks to the enthusiasm that has to be seen across our HBCU campuses because they are engines of economic impact. Finally, these racists are going for all

the marbles. As Adam Serwer, who you've interviewed many times and certainly many times on this network, has said, the cruelty is the point. When you read Project 2025, if you get pregnant, they want the police to have your name down and said if you try to terminate the pregnancy, they want to put you in jail. This is the handmaid's tale. The cruelty is the point. Lauren, you walked us through that. People who can't retire like they used to because of a punk named Ronald Wilson Reagan

who are now facing, if they get Project 2025 and implement it, the fact that they are all going to be replaced by 24- to 35-year-old white supremacists that they've got 11,000 names and growing on that they're going to replace the whole damn federal government. If you don't understand that, then you saunter on off into the sunset. Those of us who do, Brother Smith, you said it, man, sacrifice. It's sacrifice time now. We should be rendering November the 5th as irrelevant as we can. Bank the vote. Go early.

Vote. Go get somebody else. Go vote. So by the time them hillbillies show up on November the 5th to try to intimidate you, there's five people left to vote. Everybody else done voted, and we're waiting on the returns. We've got to now step it up. Doc, I want to ask you a specific question. Each of you a specific question to the point that Greg just made, and I've been saying that constantly.

You could talk about the $17 billion that the HBCUs, but the reality is when you talk about the economic impact. So if you're in a community around an HBCU, you're benefiting from that level of investment. You're benefiting from the growth in enrollment. So, you know, in Tennessee, they got rid of the board of trustees, and they complained about, you know, having to, well, why are y'all sitting there renting hotels? Fool, your enrollment is exploding. Then they were mad trying to figure out why the folks were going to Tennessee

State and not going to the white schools. It's kind of like because they didn't want to go. And then we started talking about Florida, A&M, TSU, all these schools are seeing growth. That's benefiting restaurants. That's benefiting apartment complexes. So the economic impact of HBCU growth extends beyond the campus. It's the community around the campus as well. Absolutely. We are the largest employer in this area. And so we are, but we are the largest African-American community in this area. So

the economic impact that we have, unlike some other HBCUs that are still centered in black communities, we are actually building the economic impact in a community that's more racially diverse than in a lot of places. So Lincoln grows, more jobs, benefits the area. The area, right. Oxford grows. I was a student here back in the 1980s, and I've seen coming back the tremendous growth in this area. And this university continues to contribute to that. And, you know, that's important. So that's an important point for people to know that when we're in those communities, we bring something.

We're not taking anything away. Dr. McHoon, your advice to somebody who's watching right now somebody who's listening and voter registration deadline is coming up North Carolina, deadline is 5pm tomorrow battleground state impacted by hurricanes

but Obama wins that state by 14,100 votes in 2008 black people over index in a huge way in that state. What do you say to that person? Somebody from South Africa, what do you say to that person who is saying, listen, I don't see it, I can check out. I'm just not interested in any of this at all.

I'm not going to vote. What do you say to him? So my advice to that person is that democracy is about decision making. And if you do not want to make a decision yourself, you must be prepared that someone will make a decision on your behalf and that starts with voting if you are not going to vote that means you are relinquishing your right to vote and to make a decision to somebody else you need to make sure that your decision is made in your own interest and if you are saying well I'm not going to vote I you know couldn't care who and what happens after the vote then you are forgetting that those decisions are going to come back to bite you like you said like your example speaking to those

people who you know vote in someone else and then a few months down the line they start crying to say but we made a wrong decision so the simple thing is make a decision November 5 and even before you have to make that right because it's your decision, it's your life. Not just three months, six months, nine months down the line, but four and a half years, five years later. Drake, that's a young brother or young sister in college or not in college, and they are on the fence. They say, I might sit it out. I might vote Green Party. I don't like this.

You're already shaking your head. And they come up with a variety of reasons. What do you say to them why they need to get registered and why they need to cast a ballot. I think I say to my peers, if your vote is not important, why are they trying so hard to take it away? I mean, every day something in the news, right? They're trying to wipe your name off the ballot for this, this and this reason, because there's power in your vote. And I don't think it's not what I say it's going to show people. I think it's me doing.

Right? I voted in every election since I've been eligible since 2020. And I'll vote in every election until my heart stops beating. Right? Because it's that important. And I can't not vote because I think of the sacrifices that got me here, that got my vote. I think of my grandmother, right? She's in her mid-70s. They used to throw rocks at her. She's one of the first black women in her,

from the first black students in her high school, integrated. They used to throw rocks at her, right? I think of the founders of Lincoln University, right? It started with, Started with one building, like one professor was the president, three students, 30 acres of no mule. And look at us now, right? That is from a good God upstairs, but also from actual manpower. And I can't throw it all away. There's too much at stake this year, right?

There's too much that's been put on the line for you to sit at home and not do anything because the reason that you think your vote does not matter is because they're putting a lot of money and time and effort into telling you that. So I'm going to say this to close this out and that is, and again, I love for people, I need people to understand and see tangibles. This is a state university, which means it receives state funding. Which means that the folks who vote on this university, they are elected by the people. And what our folk have to understand is that this is our money. A state institution is our money.

I remember I had some folks who said, why don't you go to Texas A&M and not go to Texas Southern? I said, well, both of them are state schools. I said, so I'm going to go get their money, too. That has to be a state of mind. And so this state of Pennsylvania is going to be hugely critical when it comes to who is the next president of the United States. There's also a U.S. Senate race. It's also important. And who controls the United States Senate is most important. Because the reality is this.

Under Biden-Harris, 200 federal judges, actually it's more than that now, have been appointed to the federal bench. 58 African-American, 37 black women, 21 black men. This president and the vice president appointed more black women to the appeals court than every president before them combined. Combined. Biden leaves office January 20th. Hopefully, Vice President Kamala Harris is 47th president.

She may very well face a Republican United States Senate. That means they will determine whether or not her judges even get a hearing. They will determine whether or not her nominees to cabinet gets approved or gets voted down. And so then you go down further. You have congressional races in Pennsylvania all across the country. And so then you go down further. You have congressional races in Pennsylvania all across the country. And guess what? If Democrats win 218 seats,

Hakeem Jeffries becomes the first black Speaker of the House in United States history. Which means, and Recy already pointed it out, the Constitution says any bill that involves money starts in the House. Let me remind everybody, all of you out there who have been complaining, you complain, Democrats fail on the George Floyd Justice Act. That's a lie. The George Floyd Justice Act passed the House.

It died in the Senate, and you can blame Senator Tim Scott and Senator Lindsey Graham, Republicans of South Carolina. The Crown Act passed by Democrat-controlled house died in the Senate because it couldn't get 60 votes. Let me remind everybody after 10 black people were murdered in Buffalo, New York. Congressman Jamal Bowman put forth a bill calling out white supremacy, calling out extremists, calling out law enforcement. Every Republican except one voted against the bill after 10 black people were slaughtered. Let me remind y'all, Republicans voted against the renaming of Confederate army and military bases.

Let me just remind you how many folks, how many Republicans voted for the American Rescue Plan? Zero. Infrastructure bill? Zero. How many of them want the infrastructure money? And right now, how many Republicans voted against FEMA funding and they're now begging FEMA for money for their community? All I want people to do the forget a Democratic Party, Republican Party. Just look at issues. Just like when I asked about HBCUs, how much money did HBCUs get under Trump compared Trump

Pence compared to Biden Harris? And if more happened on the Biden Harris than got on the Trump Pence, it's a good bet. you're going to get more on the Harris walls than you will Trump and Vance. And so I'll strip away party and just look at where the issues stand. And if I'm looking at civil rights, I'm looking at voting rights, I'm looking at criminal justice reform, black maternity health, I'm looking at the health period. It's no choice. It's a very easy choice. But one thing you have to do is not sit at home and then say, well, both parties are the same because they're not. And the facts actually show it. We appreciate all the folks at Lincoln for making today's show possible.

Madam President, thanks a bunch. Y'all know I'm real black. We were going to Philadelphia for two days and they had me going to a suburban Penn State school. And I was like, what is this school? And I said, we're not going there. I called some folks with Democratic folks. I was like, no, we're not going there. I called some folks with, some Democratic folks. I was like, no, we're not going there.

And so I called the president's office, and they were like, hello, this is the president's office. I'm like, yep, it's Roland Martin. I need to hire the president. And luckily, the second I knew who I was, she was like, hold on. She didn't ask me who you're with. And then I was like, I said, is this what you want to do? She was like, well, it's homecoming. It's a concert that night.

But there's some students who actually want to talk about, do some voting stuff. She said they want to do it on Thursday. I was like, cool, we'll do it with them. Let's go. And luckily, I had already communicated with them because Reverend Dr. William Barber put me together. What's her name? She's escaping me. Kenzie?

Yes. Put me on. And then we did it within the Zoom. And so we chatted. So I was like, oh, yeah, I Mackenzie? Yes. Put me on, and then we did the Zoom, and so we chatted. So I was like, oh yeah, I already talked to them. So I said, we good. So that's how we connected, and so we're glad to make this happen. Glad all of y'all came out. But I'm going to ask every person in this room, I did this in Philadelphia as well, and everybody

who's listening, all I'm asking you to do when you leave here is call 10 people you know and ask those 10, are you registered? And then if they say yes, they are, then you say, what's your voting plan? And then if they say I'm not, then you say, I'm going to get you registered because this election is going to be won by the margins. Literally, they are, they are, they're expecting that Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina could be decided by anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 votes. So if 100 people call 10, that's 1,000 votes alone.

And if the margin is 10,000, that 1,000 represents 10% of that number. And so trust me, your 10 phone calls can make a difference to all the folks watching we appreciate it as well y'all please keep supporting the work that we do we're back in D.C. tomorrow we're going to be in North Carolina next week Wednesday Thursday Friday broadcasting from there

I'm actually heading to North Carolina on Sunday I can't tell you what I'm doing there but I'll be there plus there's a huge rally there happening on Sunday we'll be covering tell you what I'm doing there, but I'll be there. Plus there's a huge rally there happening on Sunday. We'll be covering that. The Vice President Kamala Harris and all the work that we're doing there as well. So we look forward to going to North Carolina on Sunday and then being back there

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. The next couple of weeks we're also going to be in Wisconsin and we're looking at Michigan as well. So we'll be on the road. So your support is critical. Yes, I tell y'all, our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans on average contributing at least 50 bucks each every single year. That's $4.19 a month, 13 cents a day. Since we launched this show in 2018, 31,000 of our fans have contributed anywhere from $1 up to $30,000 to make this show possible.

And so please make it happen. All my analog people who don't trust Cash App, PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, here's my P.O. Box. Y'all see y'all checks and money orders. And y'all, they see a check. Y'all think I'm lying. They see at least $20, $30 a week. Take me a while. I got to open an envelope.

Got to see it here and sign the back. I got to take a picture. But the money still count. So your check and money order, P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash App is really tripping. They've changed their rules, y'all. So it's all kind of drama. So I'm still trying to sort it out with them.

So I've taken them off of our giving until we get it sorted out. But you can give via PayPal. Of course, our name is R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zale is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Download the Black Star Network app. Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android

TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV, and be sure to get a copy of my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, especially in Pennsylvania. Get your copy, Ben Bella Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, Books of Bill. You can also get the audio version audible. Yes, I did the reading as well.

Again, folks, thanks a lot, and y'all take care. You know how we always end the show. Holler! Thank you. We have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott.

And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them.

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves.

A wrap-up way, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad.

Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.